Iowa - Day 22 - southwestern highlights

Lake of Three Fires State Park, Bedford

Tuesday, 22 November 2022

I knocked 40 miles off today's drive because of that campground mix-up yesterday, and that made me feel more complacent about how long this trip would be, which was a mistake.  I'd forgotten that I'm still combining travel plans - this is the 2nd day of the 3 days I'm trying to cram 4 days of traveling into.  I'd been thinking I only had 2 or 3 hours of driving when, in fact, I have more than 4.  But they'll mostly be back roads instead of interstate, which means I won't be penalized on Google's estimates because of not wanting to go interstate speeds.

Anyway, we didn't leave the Lewis & Clark State Park until 9:45.  Definitely a late start.

today's route -
the southern line, not that more northerly one

In this part of Iowa, I've heard several folks mention the Loess Hills and I guess that's what I started seeing as I drove south.  "Loess" is a type of soil created by the Ice Age glaciers grinding up the rocks they traveled on, and the soil has accumulated along the Missouri River in 200' hills (which is pretty high for Iowa).  These hills are primarily found in Iowa and South Dakota, extending south into upper Missouri and west to Kansas and Nebraska.

Anyway, as I drove south this morning, I saw low hills behind flat cropfields and farmhouses and small towns.

I saw one building with lightning rods and started wondering why most buildings didn't have them.  Don't they work?  So I looked it up and apparently they do work just fine.  I think if I lived in a state with the kind of weather Iowa can have, I'd have lightning rods on my barn or 2-story house.

I took an unplanned side trip into Council Bluffs to stop at a grocery store I knew was there.  Except the traffic was pretty aggressive and the highway signs weren't very clear, so I took the wrong exit and had to try to find my way to where I was going - and very proud that I managed without much problem.  And I found a recycle dropoff site next door to the grocery store.

Then I tried to get back on the highway except a stretch of highway that Google claimed was temporarily closed but the Iowa DOT assured me wasn't closed was, in fact, closed.  So I had to do some more scrambling around to find the right place to go to get out of town.

When I finally left the interstate to head to some small towns, I found a positive side to Iowa DOT: Burma Shave type signs.  This set read:

     When you drive

     If caution ceases

     You are apt

     To rest in pieces.

          Iowa DOT

The small town of Tabor (fewer than 1,000 residents) was my first goal, because there was a house there that had been a stop on the Underground Railroad.

The Todd House

This sign doesn't provide much information - and maybe there isn't much information still available after all these years.  But some that isn't on the sign is in this article.   https://who13.com/news/the-todd-house  The park mentioned in the article where John Brown's men trained is the same park where Dexter and I took a walk and we all had some lunch.  Nice little park.  But I can't say I'm a fan of John Brown's work, because violence isn't a solution for anything (although self-defense, as Ukraine is doing, is a different matter).

A few miles away is the town of Randolph, named by early settlers coming from Randolph, VT.  (Actually, the town's website says they came from "Randolph, Vernant" but I can't find that "Vernant" is a geographical name anywhere, so I'm going with "Vermont" because it makes sense.)  It had 189 residents in 2020.  And this is what one of the main streets looks like:

That white building was originally a bank.

This looks like an active little town, proud of its heritage, and I'm basing that assessment to some extent on this sign:

From Randolph I headed south and then east and came to Shenandoah.  It seemed like yet another bizarre Iowa detail that I'd see huge cutouts of the Everly Brothers alongside the road.  I didn't know then that the family lived here in Shenandoah, singing early in the morning on the local radio show, while the boys were growing up.  Their house here is now a museum.

Not far down the road in Clarinda, I saw a sign pointing me to the "Glenn Miller Birthplace and Museum."  Apparently southwestern Iowa is the place to get your start as a musician.

When I was passing through Council Bluffs, all the gas stations were charging at least $3.35/gallon, and I didn't want to pay that, knowing it was only $3.16 farther south.  Well, I'd forgotten that I wasn't going to go that far south today, so I ended up in the tiny town of Bedford with my get-gas-immediately light lit up.  I had absolutely no choice because there was only 1 gas station in sight - and they charged $3.59.  I guess it served me right.  But I bought only $50 worth because I was sure I could pay less farther north, where I'd be going tomorrow.

Tonight's state park wasn't far from that gas station and we were in our campsite by 3:15.

Lake of 3 Fires is a small lake, mostly used by fishermen I think.  But the history of the area is interesting.  This area was used for many years by the Potawatomi people, known as the Fire Nation.  It's believed they formed a loose association with both the Chippewas and the Ottawas, and the group was known as the Three Fires.  Legend has it these three held a great conference urging other nations to join them in protecting against invading tribes.  Runners to these other nations told them the location of the conference would be marked by the smoke from 3 fires built on the highest hills, so the smoke could be seen from any direction.  The three fires would be kept burning until one of the three tribes left the area.

We were yet again the only overnight campers in that park.